May 24, 2004

Monthly US Beef And Veal Imports Up Over 17%

U.S. beef and veal imports during March rose 17.5 percent over the previous month to 93,481 MT. This was also 1.7 percent higher than March 2003. More specifically, fresh, chilled beef imports equaled 32,241 MT, up 17.4 percent from the previous month but down 7.0 percent from March 2003. Imports of frozen beef totaled 54,836 MT, 19.3 percent higher than the previous month and 8.2 percent higher than March 2003.

During March, U.S. beef imports from Canada equaled 31,176 MT, which was up 17.8 percent from February, but was down 6.7 percent from March 2003. Beef imports from Canada during the first quarter of 2004 totaled 82,616 MT. Although this was 13.9 percent less than a year ago, it allowed Canada to surpass Australia as the main supplier of beef to the U.S. with 29.1 percent of the total imports.

During March, the U.S. imported 20,804 MT of beef from Australia. This was 59.6 percent greater than February but was 18.0 percent less than March 2003. Year-to-date imports from Australia were 11.9 percent less than the same period a year ago, amounting to 78,690 MT. During March, U.S. beef and veal imports from New Zealand increased 7.6 percent over the previous month and 5.5 percent over March 2003 to 25,456 MT. Accordingly, total year-to-date imports from New Zealand reached 73,052 MT, 25.1 percent more than last year.

U.S. beef imports from Uruguay during March equaled 7,066 MT, which was down 8.8 percent from February but was nearly 20 times the volume from March 2003. Total year-to-date imports from Uruguay were almost 20 times the volume from the same period a year ago, amounting to 22,593 MT.

Overall, U.S. beef and veal imports during the first quarter of 2004 totaled 284,388 MT, up 5.3 percent from last year due to additional demand for imported lean processing beef, which was created by the decline in U.S. cow slaughter.

Source: USDA